The New Life
by ImaginaryGirlxx
Summary: The last thing that Jenna remembered before waking up in the forest was being staked in the heart. "Well aren't you lucky to have survived that." Katherine sneered. Now, forced to stay in Canada until Klaus was dead, Jenna makes friends with Evan Cross and becomes immersed in a world of dinosaurs and anomalies. Can she keep her identity a secret from her new friends?
1. Chapter 1

The last thing that Jenna remembered before waking up in the forest was being staked in the heart by a man named Klaus, whom she had recently learnt was a vampire. As if that didn't sound crazy enough; she was almost certain that she had been turned into one as well. She felt different. She wasn't quite sure how to describe it at first but all of her emotions felt... heightened. Looking around, she realised that she could see nothing but trees so decided to try and get up and find her way through the forest back to her house.

She managed to stand up and, not feeling any pain, started walking. After a few seconds it hit her. Elena was dead! That Klaus man had killed her for his stupid sacrifice. Suddenly, Jenna felt a wave of uncontrollable rage hit her as she ran out of the forest to find the man who had killed her niece. She soon stopped, however, when she reached the edge of the forest and looked out at her surroundings, surprised that she didn't recognise anything. Mystic Falls wasn't that big, surely there wasn't some city near the woods that she was unaware of.

She was disrupted from taking in her surroundings when she noticed a blurry figure in front of her, moving very fast in her direction. She started to run away when the figure tackled her to the ground. Looking up, she was greeted by Elena; or at least someone who looked exactly like her but was a vampire. _Katherine_, Jenna figured.

"Well aren't you lucky to have survived that." She sneered.

"What's happening? Where am I?" Jenna asked frantically.

"A lovely little place called Canada."

"I need to get home... Mystic Falls... Jeremy!"

"Don't forget dear, sweet Elena." Katherine replied.

"What?"

"Oh yes, she survived. Her little witchy friend made sure of that. Why can't that girl just die?"

"She's alive?" Jenna exclaimed, the most intense feeling of relief washing over her.

"Yes, and so are you. Well, sort of. You're to start a new life here, Damon's orders."

"Damon?"

"I owed him a favour. Everyone in Mystic Falls thinks you're dead and he wants it to stay that way until he gets rid of Klaus. This way, no one can use you to get to Elena again, or something ridiculously sentimental like that. I sort of switched off, he was boring me." She admitted, not sounding at all apologetic. "Anyway, here's a handy little daylight ring to help you walk in the sun and he said to tell you not to go round killing everyone. Don't ask me when he became such a killjoy, I have no idea."

"I need to see them. I have to make sure they're ok!"

"They are fine, unfortunately. Damon said he'll find you when it's safe for you to come back." She said and with that, she left just as quickly as she'd arrived, leaving Jenna very confused in her wake.

Jenna sat down against a tree and put the ring on her finger, thankful that it was still dark for now. She tried to think back to everything Elena had told her about vampires as she attempted to suppress the burning desire for blood. She remembered what she'd said about some vampires living off of blood bags from the hospital, and how Stefan survived drinking animal blood. Damon had warned her against killing people, this must be what he meant. Figuring that she'd give animal blood a try, since she was in a forest, Jenna set off in search of a deer or something to drink from.

After a while of hunting, Jenna finally managed to find a lone deer. She ran up to it and, on instinct, went for it's neck. It tasted nothing like that witch's blood, but it was tolerable. She likened it to drinking tequila. By no means was it her favourite alcohol, but she could tolerate it if she drank it quickly.

Once she had managed to quench her hunger she decided to focus on something else practical, in order to stop herself from thinking about the mess that her life had become. How was she going to make a living until Damon found her? She wasn't sure how long it would be but she didn't want to get her hopes up. When had anything in her life been that simple? And now, with all this knowledge about vampires and werewolves, it had just become even more of a mess. She decided that her first steps would be to find somewhere to live and get herself a job. Remembering what she'd been told about compelling people to do as she asked; she figured that this wouldn't be too difficult. She'd find a small apartment and start looking for jobs as soon as she could.

It had taken her a couple of days to get sorted, but Jenna had managed to find a nice apartment in the centre of the city and moved in without having to pay a dollar. As guilty as she felt about it, she didn't have much of a choice and this whole mind control thing had come in very useful. She began searching the internet for local vacancies that would cater to her... special needs. When she saw an open position on a predator control team she decided to go for it. It allowed her to be close to animals so that she could feed easily and her new found strength and speed could be helpful, especially when it came to dragging a moose, or something similar, out of the forest.

She settled in to her new job quite quickly and spent her nights researching the animals she came into contact with so that she knew what she was dealing with. Her partner, Tony Drake, seemed to really know what he was doing, which was helpful, but she needed to know what was happening as well to keep him safe and fit in with her cover story as the animal behavioural specialist, Dylan Weir.

A month had passed and she still hadn't heard from Damon that it was safe for her to return to Mystic Falls. In what seemed like no time at all a month became a year, and then a year and a half. For the most part, she had managed to stick to a diet of animal blood. She could suppress the urge to kill but there were a few times when she hadn't been able to stop herself drinking from a human. She had also got into the habit of stealing blood bags from the hospital. She wasn't proud of it but it tasted so much better than animal blood and she felt a lot better when she drank it.

One day she found herself walking through the woods in search of some unknown animal or creature that had killed someone the night before. The body had been left in such a state that part of her would have been convinced that it was a vampire attack, if not for the amount of blood still left in the corpse and the fact that his neck was untouched. The smell of it made her almost lose control right then and she would have, if not for the crowd of people that had begun to gather around them as they investigated it. If it wasn't a vampire, her thoughts drifted to the possibility of there being a werewolf in town which, according to Elena, was bad news for her. She had to be extra careful on patrol, just in case.

Later that morning, Jenna was walking through the trees in a park near the site of the attack when she came across a man on his own, a good ten minutes walk from where people usually stayed.

"Woah! Don't shoot, ranger. I'm not a bear." He said, holding his hands up to show that he was unarmed.

"Sorry about that." She replied. "What are you doing?"

"Just collecting golf balls." The man lied. Jenna was well aware that he knew she didn't believe her but neither of them said anything.

The man introduced himself as Evan Cross, claiming to be an old friend of her work partner Drake.

"You seen anything unusual in the area?" She asked him, trying to find out if there was a wolf involved as they weren't usually found in these parts of the city.

"No, not a thing."

Jenna heard something rustling in the nearby trees and looked around. She tensed, ready to run and attack if whatever it was proved to be a threat to her and Evan.

"Did you bring friends?" She asked.

"Not eight foot tall ones."

"We should go." She said, wanting to get this man out of danger as soon as possible. Sure, she could handle herself against most creatures, given that it was no longer a full moon so there was no chance that there was a werewolf roaming the park at this hour, but she was worried about her companion and about him finding out about her if she did have to defend them. "Slowly." She added, not wanting to attract the attention of the animal if it didn't already know that they were there.

They ran away from the creature, only to be led to a shiny circle of light under a bridge.

"What the hell is that?" Jenna asked. "Is it dangerous?"

"Yeah." Evan replied. "Stay close to me."

Jenna turned around and saw what was probably the last thing that she was expecting.

"Evan, don't move." She whispered, not wanting to alarm the creature, which she would be certain was a dinosaur if it didn't make her sound so crazy. She also wanted him to stay facing the shiny thing that he was currently taking photographs of so that he wouldn't see her attacking this creature. She should have guessed that she would have no such luck, however, as he turned around as well.

The creature began to charge towards them and Jenna tried to knock Evan out of the way, only to end up pushing them both into the ball of light; still not used to her increased strength. She landed on top of him and, as a reflex, her eyes began to turn dark as she found herself close to his neck, sensing the blood running through his veins and wanting nothing more than to drink it. She managed to pull herself together before he noticed though, being that he was too focused on the fact that they were no longer in the park and the creature was still facing them.

They managed to get up and Evan pulled her back through the light to the park, just as it disappeared.

"What the hell is going on?" She asked.

"I don't know." Evan admitted. "But we went through it."

"To where?"

"I'm not sure."

"Can you explain any of this?"

"I'm working on it."

"What do you mean you're working on it?"

"Just come with me." He said. Jenna complied, wanting answers to what that creature was and where they had just gone. It was in the running for the strangest thing to happen in her life and she was a vampire who had died twice releasing a vampire-werewolf hybrid from a curse. Her life wasn't exactly what could be called 'normal'.

She followed Evan back to his office where she found out that the ball of light was a magnetic anomaly and the creature apparently was a dinosaur, some sort of raptor.

Her partner, Drake, was tracking what he thought was another creature of the same species and her, Evan, and his friends were now on their way to help him. Jenna figured that she'd have to try and lose them at some point. She couldn't risk them getting hurt when she could heal quickly and was stronger and faster than them. They were talking to Drake on speakerphone when she heard the sound of claws on the other end of the line with her vampire-enhanced hearing. Her heart skipped a beat as she feared for her friend's life. She yelled his name, begging for him to get out of there and wait for them. The line went dead and she fought hard to suppress the urge to scream and lash out. As a vampire her emotions, particularly her grief, were heightened. As much as she wanted to turn it off she never would, for fear of losing herself.

They arrived at the scene to see Drake's body being dragged out of the building. She could smell his blood as she got out of the car and this fact only amplified her guilt for not being able to save him as her instincts told her to feed on him. She couldn't do that, though. He was her mentor, her friend. He was like a father to her in this new life. The one time she'd had to compel him to forget what he'd seen her do had left her feeling awful but he couldn't know about her. No one could.

After examining his body, she filled Evan and Mac in on what she'd found. Detective Harlow informed her of another possible attack in the park and, as much as she wanted to go back to her apartment and cry, she agreed to check it out.

That evening, Jenna made her way back to her apartment, exhausted from the day's events. She'd been around more blood and danger than she was used to and keeping herself under control had been even harder than usual. She'd managed it, though, and for that she was proud of herself. While relying on weapons was not her first choice when it came to dealing with these creatures, she was glad that she hadn't had to compel her new friends into forgetting what she was just yet. She didn't want to have to do it, especially after what she'd been through with Katherine when she made her spy on Elena and stab herself. Part of her was glad to be away from all of that but another part of her couldn't help enjoying the adventure that the day had brought and she had a feeling she'd be doing a lot more dinosaur hunting. Evan had offered her a job which, at first, she had declined but in retrospect she realised that she couldn't carry on working in predator control. Her partner was dead because of these creatures and she couldn't let that happen to anyone else.

Picking up the phone, she dialled Evan's number and prayed that he would pick up.

After two rings he answered.

"_Dylan, hi!"_ He said; calling her by the name she'd given him and everyone else since she'd been here.

"Evan, I was just thinking about your job offer."

"_Yeah, I'm sorry about that. It was pushy."_

"No it's fine. I actually wanted to take you up on it. You said so yourself that you need someone like me on your team." She replied, thinking about how she could be of use as a vampire, not just an animal behaviourist expert. Her psych major had definitely helped in that area when she was teaching herself about the animals she dealt with.

"_That's great!"_ Evan exclaimed, trying not to sound too excited. _"I'll see you first thing tomorrow then."_

"Ok." She agreed.

"_Oh and Dylan..."_

"Yeah?"

"_I'm sorry about Tony. I know how close the two of you were."_

"Thanks." She whispered, once again fighting back tears. She hung up the phone and went to bed, wanting to forget about what had happened to Drake but also nervous about what would happen the next morning as she started working for Evan at Cross Photonics.


	2. Chapter 2

**Here's chapter two :) I hope you like it. Please let me know if you think that this is something worth continuing :)**

For the next few months, Jenna was able to integrate herself well into Evan's 'special projects' team at Cross Photonics. So far she'd been able to keep her past in Mystic Falls and her no-so-human nature a secret from her friends. She realised early on how difficult it was going to be, though. Working with dinosaur hunters meant that she was always around suspicious and inquisitive people looking for the slightest thing out of place. Luckily, thanks to her steady diet of caffeine and blood, she was able to keep up the disguise that she was in fact human.

There were some difficult moments though, like when she went back to Toby's for a 'girls only' night after a particularly stressful week at work. It was only as Toby stepped inside that Jenna remembered what Elena said about vampires having to be invited in to someone's home. She hadn't really made any friends since being in Canada so it had never been an issue for her before.

_Jenna stood waiting outside the door, after two unsuccessful attempts of getting in. Toby had walked through the hallway and was in the kitchen pouring herself and her friend a glass of wine before she realised that she was alone._

"_Dylan?" She called out._

"_Yeah, I'm here. My... ummm... my ring fell off and I can't find it." Jenna lied, quickly taking off her precious daylight ring and crouching down as if searching for it._

"_Do you need a hand?" Toby asked, appearing at the doorway._

"_Thanks." Jenna replied, accepting her friend's help._

_After a minute of 'searching', Jenna called out that she'd found it behind a plant pot and stood up. Toby did the same and stepped back inside her apartment. Jenna stood there, unsure of what to do next._

"_Are you just going to stand there all night?" Toby asked._

"_I... ummm..." Jenna struggled for words._

"_Come on in. I have wine and ready meals, what more could you want?"_

_There it was: an invitation. Smiling, Jenna stepped into the narrow hallway and followed Toby into the kitchen._

Jenna and Toby had started making these 'girls only' nights a more regular thing, although it meant that Jenna had to hide her stash of blood bags from the fridge every time they spent the evening in her apartment. She didn't even want to imagine the awkward conversation that would result from Toby finding one of them by accident.

The constant exposure to blood as a result of dinosaur attacks had proven difficult for Jenna at first, but over time she felt better able to keep control of her basic instincts. Being a vampire with a natural thirst for human blood had allowed her to empathise with the creatures that they dealt with to some extent. She knew what it was like to want to hunt and attack as an innate part of her being. It had led to her being seen as the 'animal lover' of the group as she didn't agree with hurting them just because they didn't abide by human rules. They were dinosaurs, after all. They were out of place and scared. She knew to an extent how that felt.

She had just left her car in the parking lot outside of Cross Photonics and was about to head in to work when she saw her colleagues walking towards her. They informed her that they'd found an anomaly near a cabin where, apparently, some of Toby's friends were staying.

For some reason, which Jenna was still trying to figure out, Ange had decided to join them on their mission. Jenna was uncertain about this, not wanting to put anyone else in danger, but Evan was the boss and he'd agreed that she could come so there wasn't much she could do short of compelling them both, which is something she didn't really want to rely on. It didn't feel right to base their friendship on lies that she had made them believe. Admittedly, she was already doing that by not telling them that she was a vampire but, she reasoned, they hadn't explicitly asked her if she was human. The good thing about being away from Mystic Falls is that everyone automatically assumes that you are like them since no one was really aware of the existence of vampires, witches and werewolves.

At the scene, they ran into a dinosaur in the woods. It started chasing Ange and Jenna had to restrain herself from running after it and ripping it's throat out for charging at her friend. She was prepared to do it but Evan was already shouting orders at Ange to lead the dinosaur to them. He tackled her to the ground in order to give Jenna a clear shot at the creature.

Once it was down, they realised that they would have to drag it back to the anomaly.

"You think this will work?" Evan asked.

"It will be just like dragging a dead moose through the woods." Jenna replied.

"You've done that before?" Ange asked.

"More than once. Between the three of us it shouldn't be a problem."

Sure, it was sort of true, but she didn't mention that she could do it alone and faster than the three of them together.

She wasn't certain how long they had been dragging the creature but she could tell that her companions were starting to get tired. She wished that there was some way that she could help them without giving herself away. Just as she'd got almost to the point of talking herself round to carrying the dinosaur on her own, her foot slipped and she tumbled down the hill less than gracefully. She didn't stop until she hit a tree and she knew that she was lucky not to have knocked it over with her increased strength.

Evan was by her side almost immediately to help.

"I'm ok." She breathed, although he wasn't convinced.

"No you're not." He said, holding her left arm. "You've dislocated it."

"Not my first time." She replied. In truth she'd also been through a lot worse: namely stabbing herself in the stomach, having her neck snapped and being staked in the heart, not that she could tell Evan that.

Once Evan had clicked her shoulder back into place, Jenna healed almost instantly. Unfortunately she now had to pretend to be in pain and was unable to help her friends bring the creature back to the anomaly.

The rest of the day was no less eventful but they managed, with some effort and the help of Ken Leeds (much to Evan's dismay), to get both creatures back into the anomaly where they belonged. Jenna opted to return home as soon as they had finished drink the blood that she'd been craving all day and attempt to have a restful night's sleep. Seeing Evan with Ange had hurt her more than she'd expected. She remembered feeling like that every time Alaric brought up the topic of his dead wife, Isobel, only this was even more intense. It was the type of feeling that made her want to hide away for days with chick flicks and endless supplies of blood and alcohol. She knew she couldn't, however. She had a job to do and she had to protect her friends.

Just as she had settled in to bed, Jenna heard her phone ring. Looking at the screen, she saw that it was Evan calling her and was half tempted to go to sleep and ignore it but she knew she couldn't as it might be an emergency.

"Evan." She said as she answered the call.

"_Hi Dylan, are you busy?"_

"I was just about to go to sleep actually, is there an anomaly?"

"_No, nothing like that. I actually just wanted to see you about something."_

"Sure." She agreed, getting out of her comfortable bed and reaching for the light switch. She winced as her sensitive eyes adjusted to the light. "Do you need me to come down to the office?"

"_Actually I'm driving near yours now, is it ok if I come up?"_

"Ok, just give me a minute to get changed." She replied, hanging up the phone. It didn't take her long to put on a pair of jeans and a hoodie over her pyjamas and she rushed to the fridge to remove her supply of blood just as Evan knocked on her door. "It's unlocked." She yelled out to him as she sped into her bedroom to hide the blood bags in her underwear draw.

Evan let himself in to her apartment and looked around for signs of his colleague. Jenna emerged from her bedroom looking slightly nervous, as if she was hiding something. As much as Evan wanted to find out what it was, he figured that now would not be the best time to ask.

"You know, you shouldn't keep your door open like that." He remarked.

"I like to think I can handle myself against anyone who tries to break in." She smirked.

"I wouldn't want you taking any chances."

"I'm still alive, aren't I?" She asked rhetorically. She tried to ignore the twinge of sadness that came with that statement. She wasn't alive, not technically. She'd been dead for almost two years; existing as a vampire.

Of course, Evan just had to be too observant in that one moment when she struggled to control her facial expressions.

"What's wrong?" He asked.

"Nothing." Jenna replied. Evan lifted an eyebrow at her, giving her a look that clearly said 'I don't believe you'. Jenna sighed. "Just thinking about my family." It wasn't technically a lie. She hadn't told any of her new friends about her family and her life back in Mystic Falls, minus the vampire part.

"What happened to them?" Evan asked.

Jenna took a deep breath. She knew she would have to tell this story sooner or later and she figured that now would be as good of a time as any.

"My sister and her husband died in a car accident about five years back, leaving me to look after their two teenage kids. I raised them for two years but then there was a... ummm... incident." She said, editing the story slightly for Evan's sake. "My niece got seriously injured and one of the men responsible tried to kill me. Elena and Jeremy were both of age by then so we agreed that it was safest for them to stay with Elena's boyfriend's family." Evan gave her a confused look at this. "It's complicated, I can't really explain it right now. Anyway, the short version is now almost all of them, apart from Elena's friend Damon and a very distant relative of hers, thinks that I'm dead. It was agreed that I'd stay here until the man responsible was taken care of and it was safe for me to go back."

"I'm sorry." Evan said. "I didn't know."

"No one does. It's safest for everyone if I keep my identity a secret. If Klaus found out I was alive..." Jenna trailed off, unable to finish her sentence.

"I can't imagine what that would be like, not being able to see your family. Having them think you're dead."

"It's better than them being dead." Jenna replied, tears starting to form in her eyes.

Unable to watch his friend cry, Evan leaned in to comfort her with a hug. Jenna wrapped her arms back around him and rested her head on his shoulder.

With her emotions running wild, Jenna was struck by a sudden hunger as she was so close to Evan's neck. The thought of the blood running through his veins was mesmerising and she could feel her eyes darkening and her canines growing longer. The longing for his blood was worse than she'd ever experienced and it took everything in her power not to drink from him right there. Closing her eyes and focussing on her breathing, she was able to make her face return to normal. Leaning back from the hug, she excused herself to her bedroom saying that she needed to wipe her eyes.

As soon as the door was shut, Jenna opened her underwear draw and reached for a blood bag, hoping that by quenching her hunger she would be able to control herself around Evan. She drank it as quickly as she could without making a mess and disposed of the empty bag in the bin. It wasn't as if Evan was going to come in and see it, she figured.

Once she was sure that there was no trace of blood on her face or her clothing, she made her way back to where Evan was sitting, apologising for leaving.

"I'm sorry, it's just hard to think about them. I know it's been almost two years but I miss them every day."

"I understand." Evan replied, and he did. He still missed his wife every day and it had been six years since her cruel death. "You don't have to apologise, Dylan."

Jenna gave him a small smile, which he returned.

"Now, what was it you came here to talk about?" She asked, eager to change the subject. Finding out anything about her past led him too close to discovering her secret and putting everyone in danger and she couldn't risk that.

"Ange and I decided to take a break."

"Oh, I'm sorry."

"Maybe indefinitely." He added, sadly.

"Did something happen?"

"You could say that." He started.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Jenna asked. Evan was usually such a private person, she wasn't sure why he'd come straight to her after this.

Evan figured that it would be best to say it straight out. "She found out that I liked someone else."

"Who?"

"Do you really need to ask that?" Evan replied.

Jenna was shocked. He couldn't seriously be implying...? No, surely not.

"I... ummm..."

"I'm sorry, I know this was an awful time to spring this on you. I've never been very good at this sort of stuff."

"Evan, we can't..." She started, scared of letting him get too close to her.

"I know." He said sadly.

"It's nothing to do with you. I'm sorry Evan. If the circumstances were different then maybe but right now my life is just too complicated. I can't risk hurting you by letting you get close to me."

"You couldn't hurt me, Dylan." Evan replied, his voice heavy with sincerity.

"You don't know that." Jenna replied. "I think you should go Evan. We'll talk about this tomorrow, I promise. I just need to be alone right now."

Evan nodded and left the apartment without so much as a 'goodbye'. There was nothing Dylan could do but sit there crying. She hadn't wanted to send him away. Hell, what she'd really wanted to do was kiss him and be with him but she couldn't because she was a vampire. She knew it would never work. She couldn't tell him the truth and she couldn't protect him once she because the biggest threat to him. She sank back in to bed and turned off the light, half hoping that tomorrow never came so that she wouldn't have to face him again.


	3. Chapter 3

**A massive thanks to Totter4 for reviewing the last two chapters :) Your comments are really encouraging. I hope everyone likes this next chapter :)**

Jenna arrived at work early the next morning, hoping to catch a chance to talk to Evan before everyone else arrived. She found him in his office at his desk, staring just above his computer screen as if in deep thought. She coughed to alert him to her presence and his eyes locked on hers.

"Morning Evan. I brought coffee." She said, offering him the steaming drink she'd picked up from a Starbucks on her way there.

"Dylan, listen. About last night." Evan started.

"I understand. I mean, I really want to give us a shot but... it's complicated."

"We hunt dinosaurs for a living. I think I can handle complicated."

"Maybe in time we'll be able to try but right now I can't let anyone get close to me." Jenna admitted, as much as it pained her to do so.

"How about we start slow? One date, that's all I ask." Evan suggested.

"I don't know."

"Come on Dylan. Just a meal. Tonight after work?"

"Ok." She agreed. She couldn't say no to him again, not when she wanted to be with him so badly.

"Great. I'll book us a table somewhere nice." Evan smiled.

Jenna couldn't help the smile that appeared across her face as she nodded and left the office after hearing Toby arriving downstairs.

The rest of the day passed painfully slowly for Jenna, more so than it had done ever since she became a vampire. She had all the time in the world but tonight with Evan couldn't come soon enough. Plus it had been forever since she'd been on an actual date. Sure, she felt guilty about Alaric but she hoped that he'd been able to move on from her after he thought that she was dead.

Thankfully, their shift had gone without any anomalies showing up and causing a threat, meaning that Evan and Toby had spent the time working on anomaly detection equipment and she and Mac continued to widen their knowledge on dinosaurs. Jenna found it interesting learning about the different creatures that they could face, but couldn't stop herself from thinking about how she would be able to protect her friends about each species that she came across if such an occasion arose.

Evan and Jenna had agreed to meet at the restaurant, giving Jenna a chance to change her clothes and feed before she met him, which she was extremely grateful for. She found it much easier to control her vampire urges when she'd recently had some blood to take the edge off of her cravings. She also poured herself a glass of whiskey before she left, both to sooth her nerves and also to help with her cravings. She didn't want to take any chances tonight. After all, this was Evan.

She arrived at the restaurant about five minutes before Evan; given that it was only two blocks away from her apartment so she could easily walk the short distance.

Her smile grew when she saw her date arrive wearing jeans and a smart shirt. He looked so handsome and she couldn't believe that he had picked her over Ange and asked her out on this date.

"Hey Dylan." He greeted her with a quick kiss. "Let's go inside, you must be freezing. Were you waiting long?"

"Only a couple of minutes." She replied. In truth, she didn't really feel the cold so much as she was naturally quite cool to the touch anyway.

They followed the waiter and sat down at a table by the window, looking out on to the street.

The restaurant that Evan had chosen wasn't overly fancy or expensive. He didn't want Jenna to feel too pressured into agreeing to a second date by spending a lot of money on her and making her feel as if she owed him. In all honesty, the fact that she had showed up tonight was a miracle in his eyes, given how much she'd tried to talk him out of it. He only wished that she didn't feel the need to protect him from her past. He wanted to get to know her properly but still felt as if she was holding back on something

Jenna felt an unwanted tug at her heart as she looked around restaurant and saw how similar it was to the Mystic Grill. The atmosphere was almost exactly the same, if a little louder considering that the restaurant was in the middle of the city and a bit bigger than their small-town Grill. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed that there were pool tables set up a few feet away from the bar. It almost felt as if she were at home.

"I wasn't sure you'd actually show." Evan admitted once they had decided on their meals and given the waiter their order.

"Why not?" Jenna asked, more curious than offended.

"You seemed so reluctant. I didn't think you wanted this."

"I do, Evan. I really do. It's just my life is..."

"Complicated." Evan interrupted. "Yeah I know."

"I wish I could explain but the less you know about me, the safer you will be. Trust me."

"I do trust you, Dylan." He said.

"Jenna." She corrected. "My real name is Jenna."

"Jenna?" He questioned. She nodded.

"I changed it when I arrived here in case Klaus realised that I was alive and came looking for me."

"I like it, Jenna." Evan smiled.

"Can you keep it between us though? No one else knows that I'm in hiding and I'd like to keep it that way."

"Of course."

"Your turn." Jenna teased.

"My turn?"

"To tell me something no one else knows about you." She clarified.

"Ok. I used to be on the basketball squad in high school." He admitted.

"Seriously?" Jenna asked.

"Why is that so hard for you to believe?" He smirked.

"I don't know, I guess I always imagined you as the loner-type." Jenna replied.

"I'm guessing you were the girl always studying with a secret crush on a guy from the football team."

"Not even close." She smirked. "Try the drug using chick with a crappy taste in men." Evan laughed.

The pair were both happy that they were able to relax around each other and talk about their past, before all the crazy things started happening in their lives. She had been so happy and carefree back then and Jenna wondered if she would ever feel like that again. Somehow, she doubted it. It couldn't be possible when she was constantly suppressing the urge to kill people around her. She let out a small sigh at this realisation, which luckily went unnoticed by Evan.

There was a part of her that wished she could tell someone about herself. It would been nice to have someone to talk to about it, considering how she hadn't had a conversation about being a vampire since Katherine, and for someone to watch her back around scenes where there was a lot of blood or danger. She couldn't take that risk though. It could put them in danger from Klaus if he ever found her. She wished that she could return to Mystic Falls for some vervain for her friends. At least that way they were protected from her and any other vampire that might, and probably would, come in to their lives.

After dinner, Evan suggested that the pair of them take a walk in the park. As they walked, Evan offered Jenna his jacket which she accepted, despite not needing it. It felt good for her to be on a normal date after almost two years of being on her own.

"It's a lovely night tonight." Evan commented. "Look how clearly you can see the full moon."

Jenna looked up. It was true. The lack of clouds meant that the moon looked beautiful and bright in the dark sky, almost as if it was the light at the end of the tunnel, both for Jenna and for Evan. They finally felt as though they would be able to move on from their pasts, even though Jenna wasn't sure she wanted to. She felt as though she was starting to lose hope of ever being able to go back to Mystic Falls. After everything that had happened, she didn't even know where Elena and Jeremy were staying or even if they were alright. No one had been in touch with her and she couldn't risk going back to check up on them for fear of her secret being exposed.

The pair were sat on a park bench, Evan with his arm around Jenna's waist, holding her close. They had fallen into a comfortable silence, neither of them wanting to break the spell of the beautiful moment they were finally sharing.

In the silence, Jenna heard footsteps. She whipped her head around to see if there was anything there but it was too dark to make out any figures in the trees to her left. She heard a snarl and jumped up, worried that it was a bear or something that had got lost.

"What is it?" Evan asked.

Jenna put one finger to her lips, signalling for him to be quiet.

"I hear an animal in the trees over there." She whispered.

"Really? I can't hear anything."

Suddenly, without warning a huge wolf leapt out from the darkness and ran towards Jenna. A look of fear flashed across her face as she remembered that it was a full moon. What if it was a werewolf? One bite could kill her.

Quickly, she pushed Evan out of the way. "Run!" She yelled. Evan wasted no time in complying with her, sprinting as fast as he could away from the wolf. Unfortunately, the wolf was faster than Evan could run at human speed and it was able to claw at him, scratching the back of his leg. Jenna's eyes darkened on impulse when she smelt the blood and she sent him a warning look, not bothering to hide her face in light of what was happening. "Go that way!" She said, pointing towards the park's exit as she ran alongside him.

"What?" He asked. "We can't lead it out there where there are people."

"Trust me, Evan, it's after me, not you." She said and, with that, she sprinted at vampire speed away from the wolf, leading it away from where any other people would be and leaving a shocked Evan in her wake.


	4. Chapter 4

**Ok so writing this is much more fun than studying for my 2 exams this week :) thanks so much to aveave for reviewing my last chapter so quickly :) this one is dedicated to you! Hope you all love reading this as much as I do writing it :)**

Dylan ran for about fifteen minutes, leading the wolf in circles as far away from people as possible. Once she was sure that she had lost it for a moment, she pulled out her phone and sent Evan a text.

'_Go to Cross Photonics ASAP. I'll meet you there in a bit. I'll explain later. x'_

Sending the text had given her enough time to catch her breath. She was used to running a lot with work but never at vampire speed for this long. With a deep breath, she took off again.

She hoped that she could lose the werewolf for long enough to get to the main city where the smells could confuse it and it would lose her scent. Once she was there, she could meet Evan and explain everything. She wasn't sure she was ready to do it, but her only other choice was to compel him to forget. As selfish as it sounded, she didn't know if she could do that either. Having Evan know about her true nature if they were starting a relationship was probably safer for him anyway, she reasoned.

Eventually, she was able to make it to Cross Photonics, relatively certain that she hadn't been followed.

"Evan?" She called out; hoping that he'd made it there in one piece.

"I'm here." He replied. She ran upstairs to where she'd heard his voice and was hit by the smell of his blood from the still fresh wound on his leg. He was sat on one of the couches attempting to bandage it up when Jenna reached him. "What the hell happened out there? Why was that wolf chasing you? What are you?" He asked.

"First things first, let's sort out your leg." Jenna said as the urge to feed on his blood started reaching a point which was almost unbearable. She bit into her own wrist with her elongated canines and placed it to Evan's mouth. "Drink." She ordered. He looked at her as if to say he thought she was crazy, which was a perfectly reasonable assumption given the circumstances, Jenna mused. "Trust me." She said, her voice softer and her eyes pleading.

Evan did as he was told, confused at the fact that her blood didn't taste completely repulsive. Within seconds, the deep scratch marks on his leg had healed completely.

"What was that?" He asked.

"Can you just go and wash off your leg please? I promise I'll answer your questions I just... I don't want to hurt you." Jenna explained.

"Sure." Evan replied, heading to the shower. Once he was sure that the blood was cleaned off from his formerly injured leg, he grabbed a clean pair of pants and a shirt and got dressed, before heading back upstairs to where Jenna was sat. "All clean." He smiled. "Now, are you going to tell me what this is about?"

"Ok, but promise me you won't freak out." Jenna pleaded.

"I think my shock threshold is pretty high right now." Evan joked.

"Evan, this is serious. I'm... I'm a vampire."

"A vampire?"

"Yes. And that thing chasing me was a werewolf. I'm lucky you reminded me of the full moon tonight or I would've tried to help it and probably would be dying right now." Evan raised a questioning eyebrow. "A werewolf bite is fatal to a vampire. I haven't witnessed it but my niece has; she said it leaves you a mess. Not a pleasant way to die by any means."

"Wait, go back to the part when you said you were a vampire?"

"Do you remember that guy I told you about, Klaus?" Evan nodded. "Well he's a vampire, one of the originals apparently. He was the one who turned me to break this curse that a witch put on him. He killed me as a sacrifice for the ritual but somehow I survived. No one knows how. That's why I'm here."

"He killed you?" Evan asked, shocked. "I mean, I know you said he tried but... he killed you? You're dead?"

"Technically, he killed me twice." Jenna explained. "Once to turn me into a vampire and again for the ritual, so yeah technically I'm dead."

"How do you...?" Evan trailed off, unable to say the words. He hunted dinosaurs for a living but at least he knew they had existed. His work could be explained through science. This, what Jenna was saying, was magic. It all sounded utterly ridiculous.

"How did I become a vampire?" She asked. Evan nodded. "You have to die with vampire blood in your system. Once you wake up you have to feed on human blood to complete the transition or you'll die." Jenna explained.

"So now I've had your blood if I die I'll be like you?"

"Not exactly. It takes a day or two for my blood to leave your system. After that you'll be fine. I'd stay in the office for the next few days just in case." She suggested.

"You do realise how crazy this all sounds, right?"

"I know it's a lot to take in, trust me. My niece was dating a vampire for two years before I found out."

"How did you find out?"

"Klaus had convinced a witch to transfer his spirit into my boyfriend's body. He came over for dinner and threatened me." She said, choking back a few tears at the memory. "Luckily Stefan, Elena's boyfriend, had been there to help me. They told me everything after that."

"So you're saying that there are real vampires, werewolves and witches?"

"And doppelgangers. If Klaus' ritual worked there are vampire-werewolf hybrids as well."

"You're insane." Evan concluded.

"Trust me, I wish more than anything that I was making this up."

"So, as a vampire what can you do?"

"Well you've seen that I can run faster than you. All of my senses are heightened, which is why I heard the wolf before you. I'm stronger and I can heal a lot quicker. I can also use some sort of mind compulsion to make people believe or forget what I want them to." She admitted.

"Have you ever done that on me?"

"No, Evan I never would. I promise. I wouldn't do it unless you asked me to. I respect you way too much to do that."

"Ok."

"If at the end of this you'd rather forget about what I am I can compel you. It's a lot to handle and I understand if you would rather not know something like this."

"Why wouldn't I want to know?" Evan asked.

"I don't want you to think that I'm repulsive." Jenna replied quietly, tears threatening to fall once again from her eyes. "I have to drink blood to survive. It's disgusting and wrong but I enjoy it and I can't help that. It's a part of my nature now."

"You actually drink human blood?" He questioned. Sure, he'd accepted the fact that she was a vampire. She was different. He just hadn't had a chance to think about what that actually meant for her.

"I try not to. I do my best to live off of animal blood but it's not as nice and it doesn't keep me as strong as I need to be. I've had to start stealing blood from local hospitals."

"So you've never killed anyone?" Evan wasn't even sure that he wanted to know the answer.

"No." She replied, and Evan let out a breath he didn't know that he had been holding.

"Earlier, when you saw that I was bleeding, you're eyes they did this sort of..." Evan struggled to find the words to explain himself.

"This?" Jenna asked, forcing her eyes to darken and her canines to grow. Evan nodded. Jenna took a couple of deep breaths to get herself back under control so that she looked normal once more. "It happens when I can smell blood, sort of like a reflex. I have to fight really hard not to give in to it though, but it's getting easier. Vampires are a predatory species by nature, which is why I can empathise with some of the creatures we find so well." She explained.

"What about werewolves?" Evan asked.

"From what Elena has told me, it's genetic. The werewolf gene is passed down through the family but remains dormant until the person carrying the gene kills someone. They are naturally stronger than a human, but not at their full strength until they activate the curse. After that they have to turn at every full moon and, from what I hear, it's painful. The transformation breaks every bone in their body and they can't control it."

"And that's definitely what that creature was?" Jenna nodded.

"Evan, promise me you won't tell anyone about this, not even Toby or Mac."

"Of course I won't. Dylan, it's your secret. I wouldn't take that away from you."

"Thank you." She smiled. "And you can call me Jenna when it's just us."

"Ok." Evan replied, returning the smile.

"How are you taking this so well?" She asked.

"We hunt dinosaurs for a living, Jenna. We've been through anomalies into the past. Finding out that my girlfriend is a vampire is, well it's pretty up there but equally crazy things have happened."

"Your girlfriend?" Jenna questioned, raising an eyebrow.

"If that's what you want."

"I do, I really do. It's just I'm a..."

"A vampire, I know. I trust you, Jenna. Surely tonight has proven that much. I know you won't hurt me. I just wish you would have more faith in yourself."

"I couldn't live with myself if I hurt you." Jenna admitted.

"You won't." Evan replied, moving closer to her and tucking a stray piece of hair behind her ear.

He leaned in slightly as if to kiss her and waited, hoping that she would have the confidence to bridge the small gap between their mouths. After a couple of seconds she did and the pair exchanged a passionate kiss. Evan moved a hand to Jenna's waist and she ran one of hers through his hair. As she became more confident, Jenna removed her lips from his and started kissing along his jaw. Once she reached his neck she felt her vampire instincts take over. Her canines grew and she made a move to bite into his neck to reach the blood that had smelt so delicious to her earlier.

Fortunately, Evan noticed her opening her mouth before she was able to bite down on his neck and pushed her away.

"Jenna!" He yelled, trying to get her attention. She didn't show any indication that she had heard him, however, and pushed him back onto the couch so that she was on top of him. "JENNA!" Evan screamed. "Look at me!"

Something must have torn her out of her trance as she locked eyes with Evan. Slowly, her face returned to normal and she backed away from him in shock at what she'd almost done.

"Oh my god! Evan I'm so sorry." She cried.

"Hey, it's ok. You didn't do anything."

"I could've hurt you. Evan, I could've killed you!"

Tears were flowing freely down Jenna's face as the realisation of what had happened hit her.

"But you didn't. You were able to stop yourself."

"What if I hadn't?"

"Don't think like that. I'm fine, you didn't hurt me."

"I wanted to." She admitted, looking away for fear of what she would see in his eyes. "I'm a monster, Evan. This is why you shouldn't be with me."

Gently, Evan lifted a hand to her face and turned her head so that she was looking back at him.

"You're not a monster. You, Jenna, are one of the kindest people I know and there is no way you could hurt me. Please try and understand that."

Jenna nodded her head, a fresh wave of tears forming at the sincerity of his words.

"I'm sorry." She said.

"It's ok." He replied, bringing a thumb up to wipe the tears from her cheeks. "We'll get through this. It's going to be ok."

"Will we?"

"Yes, it will. You've asked me to trust you with a lot tonight and I'm just asking from the same from you Jenna. Trust me when I say we will find a way to make it work. We'll be ok." Evan assured her. Jenna gave him a small smile through her tears. She wished that she could be as confident in her self-restraint as Evan was.


	5. Chapter 5

**Thanks to Totter4 for reviewing the last chapter :) this next one is for you! Sorry in advance if I don't update for a few days, I really should focus on my exams but this has just been too much fun to write.**

The next morning, Jenna arrived at work feeling lighter than she had done in a while. She finally had someone to talk to about the crazy things that had been going on in her life and it felt good to be able to do so. Sure, Evan could never fully understand everything, she was having a hard enough time doing it herself, but he could listen and she'd been able to voice her fears of hurting people for the first time since she'd become a vampire.

"So, how was the big date?" Toby asked when Jenna arrived.

"Good." Jenna smiled, not wanting to give too much away given how the night had ended.

"You arrived separately this morning."

"It was only the first date." She laughed.

"Is there going to be a second date?" Jenna nodded, receiving a smile from her friend. "Awww good. I'm happy for you Dylan. But if he hurts you he'll have me to answer to." Toby threatened light-heartedly.

"I don't think I'm in any danger of that." Evan called out from where he was standing at the doorway. He'd been listening to the whole conversation, although he was pretty sure that Jenna knew that. "She'd eat me for breakfast before you even got to me." He teased.

Jenna grabbed a book off of a nearby shelf and threw it at him, narrowly missing. She didn't find herself annoyed at his comment though. In fact, she was relieved that he had taken her secret so well and knew that he wanted her to know that. Luckily, Toby was oblivious to the meaning behind the comment and put it down to playful banter.

"Good luck with that, Dylan." Toby laughed.

"Oh, he knows I could take him." Jenna smirked.

"One date and you've already got him wrapped around your little finger. What's your secret?"

"She's just amazing." Evan replied for her, coming up behind her and wrapping his arms around her waist. Jenna turned around and gave him a light kiss on the lips.

Just as they parted, the anomaly detector alarm went off. The screen told them that it was somewhere in the park that Evan and Jenna had visited the night before.

"Call Mac." Evan instructed. "Me and Dylan will go ahead and check it out, don't leave until he gets here." He warned Toby.

Jenna was already grabbing the keys to the car and Evan followed her out of the door, leaving Toby alone to call their other colleague. She unlocked the car and opened the door to the driver's side, earning herself a questioning look from Evan.

"Since when did you get to drive?"

"Since you found out that my reflexes are so much quicker than yours, meaning that I'm the safer driver. We wouldn't want to crash, would we?" She smiled. Evan reluctantly agreed and Jenna drove them to the park.

When they arrived they saw no signs of panic, which they took as a good thing. Besides, it was still early and the park was relatively empty, giving them the privacy to complete their job.

"Something's definitely come through." Jenna said. She had grown accustomed to the smells of the area from her time hunting in the dense woodlands at the far end of the park, near where she had first met Evan, and this dinosaur didn't smell like any woodland animal that she usually found.

"Do you know where it is?" Evan asked.

"No but I could try tracking it." She replied, following the direction of the unfamiliar smell.

After about fifteen minutes of walking they were deep in the woods and Jenna could sense that she was getting close. They walked through a couple more trees to where the smell was the strongest but what they found wasn't a dinosaur. Instead, they saw the naked body of a woman, curled up next to one of the biggest trees in the area. Slowly, Jenna approached the woman to see if she was still breathing. She couldn't smell blood but there was something familiar about her scent.

"Hey, are you alright?" She asked quietly, hoping not to startle the young girl. Hearing Jenna's voice, she snapped her head up to look at her. To Jenna, the girl looked as if she was only a year or two older than Elena. She had brown hair and tanned skin that was covered in mud from sleeping outside.

"I think so, just exhausted." The girl said.

"I'm Jenna, what's your name?" She asked.

"Hayley." The girl said. It seemed as if she'd just come to her senses as she sat up and tried her best to cover herself up with her arms. Sensing Hayley's discomfort, Jenna took her jacket off and handed it to her. "Why are you helping me?" She asked, suspiciously. It was clear that she didn't trust her quite yet.

"It's really no problem. Do you remember what happened to you last night?"

"Do you?" Hayley asked.

"What do you mean?"

"I almost killed you last night."

Jenna whipped her head around to look at Evan, who was also stood there in shock.

"What? You were the werewolf who chased me last night?" Jenna asked, looking back at the girl. Hayley nodded.

"I'm sorry." She admitted. "Once I change I can only follow my basic instincts. Surely you know how that feels?" She asked Jenna, who nodded sadly.

Evan didn't know how he was supposed to be reacting right now. His vampire girlfriend was helping a werewolf girl who hurt him and tried to kill her a mere few hours before, back when he didn't even know that either species existed. He might have said that his shock threshold was high but this could almost push him over the top. The whole situation was just too surreal for him to comprehend.

"Are you going to be ok?" Jenna asked.

"It was hardly my first transformation, if that's what you mean." Hayley replied. She looked behind Jenna to Evan. "I'm sorry about your leg by the way, I wasn't aiming for you."

"No, you were just trying to kill my girlfriend."

"I wasn't really in control. As a wolf, my instinct is to kill vampires. Once I found Jenna I just took off, chasing her. I couldn't help it."

"Do you have a place to go?" Jenna asked, trying to change the subject.

"I've got a friend in a pack that live up in the Appellations. I've been trying to get up there but haven't had the money."

Jenna felt bad for the poor girl. She was obviously alone and looking for a place where she belonged, much like Jenna and the creatures that they dealt with at work.

"Listen, promise not to try and kill me again, I'll compel you a ticket there." She reasoned with a smile.

"Deal." Hayley replied, desperate to be around people of her own kind. Rumour had it that there was a hybrid living there as well, which was another reason that she was trying to get there. She'd met a man who claimed that he could bring her parents back from the dead so that she could finally meet them if she was able to round up twelve hybrids. She and Jenna agreed to meet in the park that evening to make arrangements for her trip.

"We've still got a job to do." Evan reminded Jenna, who stood up and promised to meet Hayley later. The pair walked away from her, now with no idea where to look for any creatures that came through the anomaly. Once they were sure that she was out of earshot, Evan asked "Why are you helping that girl? She almost killed you last night."

"Dinosaurs almost kill us on a daily basis but we still help them." Jenna retorted. "Besides, I would rather not have to go through another full moon like last night. The further away I am from werewolves, the better."

They walked for a few more minutes, following the signals from the anomaly detector, when Jenna heard a scream.

"Someone just screamed." She exclaimed. "Over there."

Evan looked around to see if anyone was there was anyone around. "Go!" He commanded when he knew that they were alone. Without a second thought, Jenna sped off to the location of the scream.

Once she arrived, she saw Mac face to face with a dinosaur, standing protectively in front of Toby who looked as if she'd been hurt quite badly. She slowed down as she reached them, not wanting to arouse any suspicion from her team mates. Every natural instinct in her body told her to go to Toby and feed. The adrenaline from the chase had made her innate desires go into overdrive. The human part of her was screaming that she couldn't. She was her friend, not a piece of meat, Jenna kept telling herself.

After finally getting herself under control, Jenna whistled to catch the dinosaur's attention. It looked at her for a brief second before running after her at full speed. '_Damn, that thing was fast'_ she thought to herself. When she was sure that she was far enough away from Mac and Toby she increased her speed and lost the dinosaur, only to come back around behind it and dive straight for it's neck. This creature had hurt her friend and all that she could think if was making it pay. That was, until the blood touched her lips and from then it was all about the feed. Unbeknownst to Jenna, Mac had followed them and finally caught up with her and the dinosaur.

"Dylan! What the hell?" He yelled, pointing his gun at the creature.

Jenna whipped her face around to see him, angry at whoever was disturbing her feed. Mac took a step back when he saw his friend's face covered in blood with a murderous look in her eyes. She jumped away from the dinosaur and towards Mac, just as Evan reached her.

"Dylan!" He yelled. "Dylan!" Jenna remained focused on Mac. Evan wasn't giving up, though. He couldn't let his girlfriend become the monster that she was so afraid to be. "JENNA!" He screamed, hoping the use of her real name would catch her attention. Luckily, it did and she looked around to her boyfriend.

"Evan?" Jenna asked, her face returning to normal as she was able to get in touch with her human side once again.

"It's me." He replied. "Come here."

Jenna obliged. She walked around the unconscious creature towards Evan, the shame evident in her eyes.

"I'm so sorry." She said.

"It's ok. We're all ok."

"Toby's hurt." Jenna stated.

"How badly?" Evan asked Mac, who was still recovering from the shock of what had just happened.

"Pretty bad." Mac replied. "She's going to need a hospital."

Jenna looked to Evan. "I can help her." She whispered. "You know I can."

Evan contemplated this for no more than a couple of seconds before giving her the affirmative. Without a second's thought, Jenna sped off in the direction of her friend, guided by the smell of her blood.

"What the hell just happened?" Mac asked Evan once she had left.

"I'll let Dylan explain that later. Right now we need to get this dinosaur back to the anomaly." Mac nodded. "It's not far from here but he's heavy, we're going to need Dylan's help." This left Mac feeling even more confused but he decided against asking more questions until they were all safe.

Meanwhile, Jenna had reached Toby. She had spent the whole run attempting to control her breathing and suppress her vampire instincts so that she wouldn't risk hurting her friend when she arrived.

"Dylan! What happened? Is everyone ok?" Toby asked frantically.

"Everyone's fine. We've knocked the creature out we just need to get it back through the anomaly. But right now, my first priority is to help you."

"Have you called an ambulance?"

Jenna shook her head. "I can heal you but you've got to trust me." She replied, receiving a questioning look from her friend. "I'll explain everything when we get back, I just need to make sure you're going to be ok."

"What do you mean?"

"Do you trust me, Toby?" She asked. Toby nodded her head. This was all the response that Jenna needed as she bit into her wrist and told her friend to feed on her blood.

"Are you crazy? I'm not drinking your blood!"

"Please trust me with this. It will help you, I promise."

Jenna could tell that Toby was thinking it through in her head, trying to calculate exactly what was going to happen. When her mind came up blank she looked at her friend and nodded, figuring the worst thing that could happen was she could taste some disgusting blood and be brought to the hospital.

Slowly, she took her friend's bleeding wrist to her mouth and sucked on the blood, allowing it to enter her system.

After a couple of seconds Jenna intervened. "That's enough. You'll be ok." She smiled and Toby released her wrist. In next to no time at all, Toby's wounds had healed.

"What did you do?" She asked.

"I saved your life, now I have to go and help with the dinosaur and save a bunch of other people." She smiled.

"Are you going to need my help?" Toby asked, still slightly in shock.

"I'll be faster on my own. Wait here, we'll come back for you."

Toby nodded, not quite knowing what to think as her friend ran off at an inhuman speed.

"You boys need a hand?" She teased as she reached her friends who were struggling to drag the dinosaur back.

"How's Toby?" Evan asked.

"She'll be fine. A bit freaked out but physically she's ok."

"Glad I'm not the only one who's a little freaked." Mac commented.

"I think we all are." Jenna remarked as she began helping them to drag the dinosaur through the trees. As much as Mac hated to admit it, it was a lot easier to do with his female colleague helping them.

Once the dinosaur was safely back in the anomaly, the team headed back to Cross Photonics. Evan and Jenna drove their car back together, while Mac and Toby took the other car.

"What are you going to do?" Evan asked Jenna as she drove.

"I want to give them the same choice I gave you, I'm just not sure that I'm ready for everyone to know." She admitted.

"At least you won't have to hide any more though."

"Toby's going to try and analyse every little thing that I tell them." Jenna smirked. "It was a lot harder to convince her to drink my blood than you."

"Why am I not surprised?" He asked rhetorically.

They arrived back at Cross Photonics after Mac and Toby, having had further to walk from the anomaly site to reach their car. The pair of them were sitting on one of the couches in silence when they arrived, making Jenna feel as if she was walking in to an interview, which only increased her nerves for what she was about to do. Evan took hold of Jenna's hand and gave it a gentle squeeze for moral support.

Mac was the first to break the silence once Jenna and Evan had sat down. "What happened out there?" He asked.

"I'm... ummm..." Jenna stuttered. She looked to Evan for help. He smiled at her but she had lost her courage. "Can you do this?" She whispered to him. He nodded.

"Dylan is... well she's a vampire." He said. They were greeted by a pair of shocked faces. Mac knew that he would've burst out laughing if he hadn't witnesses firsthand what Jenna had done earlier.

"You made me drink your blood." Toby stated in shock.

"Vampire blood can heal a human. I have no idea how, it just does." Jenna replied calmly. "And Mac, I'm so sorry about earlier. I never meant to scare you. I was... angry." She said.

"Why?"

"The dinosaur had hurt Toby and my feelings of anger were magnified because of what I am. But once I started..." She trailed off, unsure if she could continue. Evan's hand giving hers another squeeze gave her the strength to carry on. "Once I was feeding on him nothing else mattered. Then you came up and made me stop. If I wasn't already angry I might have been alright but since this all happened my emotions have been all over the place." Jenna tried to explain.

"How long has it been?" He asked.

"Almost two years. I'm still getting used to everything but I've managed to last the whole time without killing. From what I've heard I'm doing better than anyone else I know."

"You mean there are others?" Toby questioned.

"Yeah, more than you'd know."

"And you've met them?"

"Only a few of them. They explained everything to me before I turned."

"You mean you chose to be like this?" Toby asked.

A look of sadness flashed across Jenna's eyes. "No, I didn't. But luckily I knew what was happening when it did. Without that I wouldn't have survived this long."

"You know, I always thought that vampires were meant to be immortal."

"We can live forever, but we can still be killed." Jenna explained.

"How?"

Jenna sighed. She hadn't told Evan any of this and hadn't counted on Toby's curiosity to lead her to ask it.

"Ummm... a stake through the heart, werewolf bite, sunlight..." She listed.

"But you walk in the sun." Mac interrupted.

"I have a special ring that lets me. Without it I would burn the second I stepped outside in the day."

"There are werewolves as well?"

"We were chased by one last night." Evan said, earning shocked looks from his colleagues. "We found her in the woods this morning. We are just very lucky she didn't have a chance to bite Dylan."

"This is all too weird." Mac commented.

"I know." Jenna replied. She turned to Toby. "Toby you need to promise me you'll keep yourself safe for the next couple of days. If you die while my blood is in your system you'll come back like me. As much as it has a few good sides, I wouldn't wish this on anyone." She explained. Toby nodded her head. She didn't want to end up as a vampire.

Jenna carried on explaining what she had told Evan the night before. Even though he had already heard it, it still seemed so surreal to him. Jenna was sort of happy that she didn't have to hide herself from her friends any more but knew that it would take them a long time to get used to it.


	6. Chapter 6

When Jenna arrived home that evening she found a small parcel addressed to her in front of her door. Letting herself in, she placed the box down on her table and began to open it. Inside, she found a familiar looking ring and a small quantity of some herb. She tried to reach for the ring to have a closer look at it, only to find her skin starting to hurt when she came into contact with the plant. Automatically, she withdrew her hand from the box, realising that it was filled with vervain. It was then that a small slip of paper caught her eye.

'_Thought you might want this, no one here can use it any more. D.'_

Jenna then realised why the ring had looked so familiar to her. It had once belonged to Alaric, and she was sure John had worn it as well. It had the ability to bring a human back to life if they had been killed by something supernatural. She made a mental note to thank Damon when she was able to return to Mystic Falls.

What worried her, however, was that he had mentioned that no one else had any use for it. What did that mean? Alaric was able to use it, and so could Jeremy and John. Had something happened to them? Jenna quickly reached for her computer and searched for their names, hoping not to come across any obituaries. Her heart was pounding at record speed as she scrolled through the information on the screen.

_Alaric Saltzman._

"NO!" Jenna screamed. This couldn't be happening! Alaric couldn't be dead! The tears were flowing heavily down her face but she forced herself to keep searching for John and Jeremy. She went back as far as the day that she had supposedly died, only to see that John had passed away that same day. Sure, they hadn't had the best relationship but the news of his passing still devastated her. She couldn't help wondering what had happened to them both, wondering if there was something that she could've done to save them at the time had she been around.

The only small piece of hope that Jenna gained from this was that at least Jeremy was still alive. She figured that he must be wearing the second Gilbert ring for protection.

The intensity of the emotions that Jenna was feeling made her realise why some vampires chose to turn off their humanity altogether. Grief was a near impossible emotion to deal with as a human and being a vampire only magnified it. If she didn't have Evan and her friends at work, she felt that she might have flipped the switch almost instantly but she knew that she couldn't do that. She had friends and she still had a family back in Mystic Falls that she would someday be able to return to. She knew that she had to hold on to those people to keep herself strong.

Jenna reached for her phone, calling the one person that she knew by now could help her stay in control: Evan. Luckily, he picked up almost immediately.

"_Jenna, hi. How are you?"_ He asked.

"Honestly, not great. Is it alright is I come and see you?" She asked through her tears, desperately hoping that he was free.

"_Of course. I'm at home now. What's happened?"_

"Thanks Evan. I'll explain when I get there."

"_Ok I'll see you soon."_ He said, hanging up the phone. '_I love you.'_ He added silently, wishing that he had the confidence to say it out loud to her.

Jenna grabbed the package that Damon had sent her, her keys and a blood bag from her fridge as a precaution; placed the items in her purse and left the apartment. She drove to Evan's as fast as she could, breaking almost every speed limit. She was comfortable with the knowledge that she could drive safely and compel any police officer who caught her. Luckily, she was able to reach Evan's house without being stopped and she knocked on the door.

Evan came to the door and opened it to see Jenna. Her usually flawless, yet minimal, make up was smudged and her cheeks were stained with tears. He wanted nothing more than to take away her pain, hating to see her so upset... so broken.

Jenna gave a small smile when she saw Evan and he backed away from the door, giving her space to step inside.

"I... ummm..." Jenna stuttered.

"What's wrong?" He asked.

"I can't come in. You have to invite me." She explained quietly, attempting to walk forwards to demonstrate her point.

"Oh, sorry. I didn't realise. Come in." He said. Jenna obliged, stepping in to the warm house and relaxing in to her boyfriend's open arms. "Do you want to tell me what happened?" Evan asked, leading her to the couch.

"I got a parcel today from Damon and I... I found out that my ex boyfriend and... Elena's father are... dead." She said, struggling to get the words out as a fresh wave of tears hit her.

"Oh Jenna, I'm so sorry." Evan said sincerely. He knew how much she still cared about her ex and didn't hold it against her. He figured that it was the same way that he still felt about Brooke. There was nothing he could do but hold her until her tears had subsided. "What happened?" He asked once she'd calmed herself down.

"I don't know. I just found their obituaries online."

"How did you know to look?" He asked, confused.

"Damon sent me this ring that they both used to wear, it can bring a human back to life if they've been killed by something supernatural." She explained. "He said that no one there can use it, meaning that they'd either become vampires or something or..." She trailed off. "I wanted to give it to you."

Jenna took the box out from her purse and gave it to Evan who opened it. He took the ring out and looked at it, his brow furrowed as he tried to understand what she was telling him.

"So if I wear this, no vampire or werewolf can kill me?" He asked.

"They can kill you but this ring will bring you back."

"As a vampire?"

"No, you'll still be human. I want you to wear it to keep you safe from anyone who might be after me." Jenna explained. "And from me." She added, quietly, as she turned her head away from him.

Evan placed a hand on Jenna's knee and she looked back at him. "Thank you." He said, brushing a stray piece of hair away from her face. He didn't bother to mention that he didn't believe she was capable of hurting him, hoping that his caring gestures and the fact that he was still with he spoke the volumes needed to get his point across to her.

"And that herb in the box is called vervain." Jenna told him. "If you ingest it I won't be able to drink your blood. I'd like to give some to Toby and Mac as well. It will also stop you from being compelled."

Evan nodded, realising as Jenna spoke that what she'd told him had barely scratched the surface of what there was to know about vampires.

"Are you going to give it to them tomorrow?" He asked.

"I can't touch it. You'll have to do it." She replied. "I tried to get the ring out from the box earlier and it burnt my hand."

"Is that going to be enough to last very long?" Evan questioned.

Jenna shook her head. "Probably not, but as long as it's on your body you can't be compelled. I'll just have to be more careful when the rest of it runs out. We'll find a bracelet or something for each of you to put it in and wear."

"Ok." Evan agreed.

The pair made casual conversation for a while as Evan attempted to take Jenna's mind off of the bad news that she'd received that evening. They agreed to order a take-out for dinner as neither could be bothered to cook after the difficult day that they'd had. Once they had placed their order, Evan walked in to the kitchen and grabbed a beer from his fridge.

"Do you want one?" He asked Jenna.

"Got anything stronger?" She replied with a small smile. Evan raised an eyebrow at her, not picturing her as a heavy drinker as she'd never had more than one glass of wine in front of him. "It helps with the cravings." She explained.

Evan went back to the kitchen, only to return about a minute later empty-handed.

"I'm sorry, I've only got beer. Do you want me to go to the shop and get you anything?" He suggested.

"Actually..." Jenna trailed off, not sure if she had the confidence to continue with her request.

"What?" Evan asked.

"No it's fine, I don't want to freak you out." She explained.

"Jenna, whatever it is you can tell me." He smiled encouragingly at her.

"I brought this with me, just in case I needed it." She said, lifting the blood bag out of her purse. A look of shock crossed Evan's face but he was able to mask it quickly. Unfortunately, Jenna noticed. "I'm sorry, I wasn't planning on drinking it in front of you." She explained.

"No it's ok, honestly." Evan said, after getting over his initial shock. He stood p from the couch and went to grab a clean glass from the kitchen for her to pour the blood in to.

"You don't have to do that." Jenna said when he returned. "I can drink it from here so I don't have to get it in one of your glasses."

"It's fine, Jenna." He smiled. "I'm ok with this, really. I just want you to be comfortable."

"Ok, thanks." She said, accepting the glass.

After dinner, Jenna drove herself home and decided to go straight to sleep, hoping to hang on to the good feeling she had from seeing Evan for as long as possible before she had to face up to the loss that she'd experienced earlier.

The next morning found Jenna at a local market stall selling jewellery near the park. Seeing that they sold bracelets that opened up enough to hold some vervain, she purchased three of them before driving to Cross Photonics. She made her way up the stairs to Evan's office and placed the three bracelets on his desk, leaning over to give him a quick kiss as she did so.

"Good morning to you too." He smirked. "What are they?"

"For the vervain. I figured it was best not to waste any time." Jenna explained. Evan nodded.

"So what do you need me to do?" He asked her.

"Put a small amount of the herb in each of them."

"That's it?"

"Yeah, as long as you are wearing it you can't be compelled." Evan stopped working on his computer to sort out the vervain bracelets, knowing that Jenna herself couldn't touch them. Once they were finished, he pair went downstairs to give them to their colleagues.

"What's this?" Mac asked.

"It contains an herb to stop a vampire from compelling you." Evan told him and Toby.

"And this actually works?" Toby asked.

"Well, we don't know." Jenna replied.

"We haven't tried it yet..." Evan started.

"And we're not going to." Jenna finished for him.

"I think we should." He suggested. "What harm can it do if you think it will work?"

Reluctantly, Jenna agreed. Toby volunteered herself to test whether the bracelet allowed them to resist Jenna's compulsion so she turned to her and said "You are going to walk over to Mac and kiss him." Evan tried to conceal his laughter in a cough at their shocked faces as they waited to see what Toby would do. When she didn't move after a couple of seconds, they concluded that the vervain had worked and they could no longer be compelled.

Once Mac was out of site, Toby dragged Jenna to one side of the room to talk in private.

"What did you ask me to do that for?" She whispered angrily.

"To give you an excuse to kiss him." Jenna smiled.

"What? I don't want to kiss Mac." Toby protested.

"Sure you don't." She replied, not sounding at all convinced.

"How did you even...? Can you read my mind?"

Jenna shook her head. "I'm an animal behaviourist, remember?"

Toby sighed, knowing she wasn't going to win this argument.

"Do you think anyone else knows?"

"Evan might, Mac seems oblivious." She replied, not mentioning that she also seemed to be oblivious to Mac's feelings towards her.

Just as Toby was about to reply, an alarm went off throughout the office.

"_Security breech. Emergency lockdown activated."_ An automated voice rang through the building.

"Shit!" Evan said.

Toby rushed to the computers to try and look at the CCTV footage, only to find that it had been wiped.

"What's out there Toby?" Mac called out.

"I don't know. Someone must have hacked in to the system and turned off all the cameras."

Jenna tried to listen to what was going on outside the room when she heard a gun going off. It sounded close. Suddenly there was another gunshot followed by a scream and the overwhelming smell of human blood. She looked around to see Toby on the floor and a man dressed in black pointing a gun at her friend.

"Don't move or I'll shoot you as well!" The gunman said.

Evan and Mac stayed put but Jenna made a move towards her injured friend, knowing that the bullets the man fired couldn't kill her. Unfortunately, he was still able to hit her, causing her to scream out in pain.

Slowly, Jenna made it to Toby's side and was about to feed her some of her blood when the gunman fired a fourth shot.

It was as if everything was happening in slow motion. The bullet flew through the air and hit Toby again in the head. Within seconds she was dead and Jenna let out an ear-piercing scream.

Not caring about the gunman, Mac and Evan rushed over to Toby's body. Jenna, however, was consumed by a sudden hatred like no other she had felt before. She ran at full speed towards the man who killed her friend and lunged at his neck, relishing in taste of human blood straight from the vein.

Evan noticed what was happening behind him and ran towards his girlfriend, grabbing hold of her and pulling her away from the man, who was seconds from death.

"Jenna! Stop! You don't want to do this."

"He killed Toby... He killed..." She sobbed. "She's dead."

"I know, but that doesn't mean you get to kill him. You can still save him Jenna. You can make this right." Jenna shook her head. "Feed him your blood or I'll give him my ring. Either way he'll live. I'm not letting you become a murderer!" He told her.

The realisation of what would happen if she didn't save this man hit Jenna and she immediately fed him her blood. His neck started to heal and within a minute he was healthy once more.

Jenna turned to face him, looked him in the eyes and said forcefully "You will not remember what just happened. You will not remember me feeding on you or how I gave you my blood, or anything about what I am. You will never come back to Cross photonics again, or come within three feet of anyone in this room." She commanded him. Evan watched in fascination as Jenna's pupils changed size while she was talking to the man, who seemed to automatically accept what she was saying as the truth. Without the need for any other encouragement, the man got up and walked out of the room.

Once he had left, Jenna let herself collapse into tears in Evan's arms, while Mac cradled Toby's body. They stayed like that for what felt like forever, each of them lost in their own thoughts and tears. Nobody dared to say another word as if doing so would break the spell and make everything that had just happened more real. They had lost their team mate, their close friend, to a murderer who killed her in cold blood. Nothing could make that right.

Finally, Jenna spoke up. "I can't do this anymore, Evan. Everyone who gets close to me is dying." She cried. "I want to shut it off."

"Shut what off?" He asked.

"My humanity. I can't feel any more... it hurts too much. I've lost my family... my friends... my life. And now Alaric and John and... and Toby."

Evan hugged his girlfriend tighter. As much pain as he was in from losing Toby, she was feeling it so much worse. He couldn't even begin to imagine the tidal wave of grief that she felt in that moment.

"I'm here for you, Jenna. Please don't leave me. I'll help you through this all." He pleaded. "I love you."

Without warning Toby sat up, gasping for air.


	7. Chapter 7

_Without warning Toby sat up, gasping for air._

"What happened?" She asked, sounding out of breath as she tried to fill her lungs with oxygen.

"What?" Mac shouted. "What's happening? I mean, you were..." He trailed off, unable to bring himself to say it.

"I was what?" Toby questioned, confused.

Jenna moved slowly across the floor to her friend, as if scared to shatter the dream that she was alive.

"How do you feel?" She asked as she reached her, holding out a hand so that Toby could sit up properly.

"Strange. I don't... I don't know. Something feels different. It feels like I have the most awful hangover. Can someone switch off the lights?" She asked and Evan complied, still in shock. "What happened?"

"What do you remember?" Evan asked. No one wanted to break the news that she had been killed to their friend.

"There was a man with a gun. He shot me in the leg and then..." She looked to Jenna. "Dylan! He shot you! Are you ok?" Jenna nodded. "I remember him pointing his gun at me but after that it's all blank." Suddenly the realisation dawned on her face. "Oh my God, he killed me! But then how...?"

"That's what we're trying to figure out." Evan replied.

Toby started to scratch her wrist where the bracelet was, deciding to take it off as it became uncomfortable.

Jenna's face paled as she realised what had happened.

"Toby, do you remember what I told you yesterday about what would happen if you died before my blood had left your system?"

Everyone was quiet for a couple of seconds before Toby remembered. "Oh God, no! You mean I'm a..."

"Not quite." Jenna said, placing her hand on Toby's arm as an attempt to calm her frantic friend down. "You still have to feed on human blood to complete the transition."

"What happens if I don't?" Toby asked. Jenna looked down, unable to look her friend in the eye. This was enough of an answer for Toby. "How long?"

"I don't know. I was forced to feed almost instantly. It could be anywhere up to a day I think." She answered, tying to appear calm for Toby's sake when inside she was screaming. How could she have been so stupid as to let this happen?

"What are you going to do?" Evan asked as Toby processed the information.

"I don't know." She admitted, tears forming in her eyes. "I don't want to die!"

"You don't have to. If you decide to feed I'll help you through it. You won't be alone like I was." Jenna assured her.

"I can't die." She cried.

"Ok, if you're sure about this." Jenna replied. Toby nodded.

"Does this mean I have to drink blood?" She asked, looking disgusted.

"It's not as bad as you'd think."

"So what do I have to do?"

"Well I can get you a blood bag from the hospital, or you could find someone to feed on."

"How much?"

"It only takes a drop." Jenna explained.

"She can have my blood." Mac offered. Jenna nodded but Toby looked uncertain.

"It will be ok, we won't let you hurt him." She assured her friend. Toby nodded. "Ok, just take his wrist and drink." She instructed.

"I don't know how."

Jenna turned to Mac, suddenly anxious about what she was about to ask. "Do you mind if I... ummm... it's just when she smells it the instincts will kick in. She's just nervous."

Mac offered his wrist to Jenna and she tentatively bit in to it. His blood tasted so good that she wanted to carry on drinking but knew that she was doing this to save Toby's life so she couldn't. Besides, she would hate herself if she ever hurt Mac. She let go of his wrist and offered it to Toby, who still looked disgusted at the thought. As she began to smell the blood, however, she became mesmerised by it. She leaned her head forwards slightly and drank some of the blood, her eyes darkening with the transition as she began to focus on nothing but the feed.

"Toby." Jenna shouted to get her attention. She looked up angrily, letting go of Mac's wrist to focus on Jenna. "It's me. It's ok. Just take a deep breath and focus on me." She coached her. "That's it." She smiled as Toby's face returned to normal.

"How do you feel?" Mac asked.

"I don't know. I can't describe it. Everything just feels so..." She struggled to find the word.

"Heightened?" Jenna suggested. Toby nodded. "It will take a while to get used to everything. We'll help you though."

"I can't go out in the sun, can I?" She realised suddenly.

"I'm going to ask Damon for a daylight ring. Until we get one for you you'll have to stay inside during the day."

Toby felt her eyes filling with tears. "I'm sorry." She said, wiping one away from her cheek. "I don't know why I'm crying."

"It's ok, it's normal. Everything you were feeling before has been magnified. You're not used to all of the emotions yet. It's what makes a lot of vampires turn off their humanity apparently."

"You can do that?" Mac wondered.

"Is that what you were talking about earlier?" Evan asked.

Jenna nodded. She really didn't want to have this conversation right now.

"We can do it, yes. Most vampires kill to survive so imagine having to do that and feeling a heightened sense of guilt every time. It would be almost impossible to cope. I've never done it but I've heard it's just like flipping a switch. You turn off the part that's human and suddenly all those emotions go away." She explained, hoping that they would forget that she almost did it herself.

Luckily, it seemed that Evan had dropped the topic for a moment. "How soon can you get a ring for Toby?" He asked.

"Like I said I'll ask Damon. He knows a witch who can spell the ring for you."

"Can you call him now?"

"I'll try." She said, reaching for her phone. She dialled Damon's number and waited, unsurprised that he didn't pick up. Sighing, she told them she'd try again later when she saw his name flash up on her screen.

"_You shouldn't be calling me." _He said, by way of a greeting.

"I need your help." She started.

"_So does everyone. What do you want?"_

"I need a daylight ring."

"_I already gave you one."_

"I... umm... turned someone. Is there any chance you could get Bonnie to make a ring for her?"

"_Her?"_ He questioned and Jenna knew where his mind was wondering.

"Shut it Damon! I saved her life yesterday and some asshole psychopath shot her." She explained angrily. "He reminded me of you." She added, feeling a lot more like her old, feisty self than she had done in a long time.

"_Wow I'm flattered. I always knew we had chemistry."_ He teased and he could almost feel the glare that he knew Jenna was giving him down the phone._ "Fine I'll send you one_." He agreed.

"Thank you." Jenna smiled, sighing with relief. "And thanks for the Gilbert ring." She continued, her voice dropping as she remembered the reason behind him sending it to her. "I'm sorry about Ric." She added sadly. Damon hung up the phone without another word and Jenna looked to her friends. "He's going to send us a ring for Toby."

Toby smiled, glad that she wouldn't have to be cooped up inside forever.

"So what will I do until then?" She asked.

"I can teach you how to hunt at night and you can stay here or at home during the day." Jenna suggested. The thought of hunting for animals to feed on still made Toby feel a bit queasy, although she couldn't deny that she had enjoyed the taste of Mac's blood earlier.

Suddenly, the alarm went off to signal that an anomaly had opened. Toby flinched at the sound. "Has that alarm always been that loud?" She asked. Jenna nodded. "Something else I'll have to get used to, I guess." She said sadly.

"Me and Evan can take this one." Mac suggested. Jenna looked uncertain, but at the same time didn't want to leave Toby alone.

"We'll call you if we need backup." Evan promised.

"Ok." Jenna agreed, giving Evan a kiss. "Stay safe. I don't want you ending up as a vampire as well." She forced a laugh, despite the sadness in her eyes.

Once they had packed up everything they might need they headed to the site of the anomaly, leaving Toby and Jenna alone in their office. Without warning, Toby started crying again, harder than she had done before.

"Why did this have to happen to me?" She sobbed.

"I am so sorry Toby. I really am. If I'd have known what would happen I would have let you go to the hospital yesterday instead of feeding you my blood."

"Why did you do it? You knew this could happen but you fed me your blood without telling me it could turn me into a monster and now look at me!" Toby screamed.

Jenna hung her head, feeling awful about what had happened.

"I'm sorry, I just wanted to help you. I couldn't let you die and your injuries were so bad..." She trailed off as she started to cry as well. "I've lost so many people; I couldn't lose you as well. You've been my best friend these past few months. It's been so long since I've been able to relax and have fun with a friend and being like that with you reminded me of being back in college, back before my sister died and my life became this mess." Jenna admitted.

Toby's face softened as she heard her friend's story. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to lash out at you. I honestly had no idea how hard this has been for you." She said, her eyes still filled with tears.

"It's ok, I understand. Your emotions are all over the place right now, I won't take it personally." Jenna tried to reassure her.

"Why didn't you mention your sister before?" Toby asked.

"It's still too painful to think about her; to think about everyone I've lost. I just wanted to try and forget for a while and live a normal life." She scoffed. "Not that I can tell what normal is any more."

At this, Toby was able to crack a small smile. "We hunt dinosaurs. I'm not sure anyone here knows much about being normal."

"That's probably true."

"Earlier, when I was drinking Mac's blood, how did you know I'd even be able to stop?" Toby asked quietly. She was ashamed of how caught up in the feed she had been and almost didn't want to bring it up with Dylan but she knew that her friend would understand how she had been feeling.

"Because of how much you care about him. I know you, Toby. Vampire or human, you will always care about Mac. As tempting as his blood is, as long as you hold on to your humanity your love for him will stop you from killing him."

"But how does that even work?"

"I don't think there's any set rules for this." Jenna laughed as her friend's scientific mind was working overtime to figure out some formula behind everything that was happening. "I remembered what you told me a couple of months back when we found Leggy with those stoners. You felt awful about shooting a tranquiliser at that guy and those emotions will be magnified now. You don't have it in you to kill someone you care so much about, trust me."

"What if I can't stop myself?"

"We'll all be here to help you. It's hard at first but at least you're not alone."

"Like you were?" She asked. Jenna nodded sadly. "I didn't want to stop." She admitted.

"I know, but you did. You were able to listen to the part of you that's still human and fight the basic instinct to feed. I can't say it will get easier but you will be able to control yourself." Jenna assured her.

"How do you do it? You had to control yourself around us for so long and with all those dead bodies..."

"It wasn't easy." Jenna admitted.

"I could barely do it earlier. And yesterday in the park when I was hurt... you wanted to feed on me then, didn't you?" She asked.

Jenna wasn't sure how to respond. She didn't want to admit that she'd felt the bloodlust around her injured friend, but at the same time there was no point in hiding the truth from her. She was going to have to experience that need to feed on human blood and Jenna knew that she couldn't lie to Toby about it.

"Yes, I did." She finally responded, figuring that it was best to be completely honest with her. "I'd had to follow the smell of your blood to find you again anyway, which meant that I already wanted to drink from you but I pushed it down when I saw how hurt you were and remembered that I was there to help you. You just need to learn to find that humanity within you and hold on to it so that you don't give in." Jenna informed her, hoping that she was explaining it clearly enough. "I'll stay with you next time and help you, I promise."

Meanwhile, Evan and Mac had managed to coax the lone dinosaur back into the anomaly without any problems for the first time in what felt like forever. It had been a herbivore so was of no threat to them and was able to go back home once they had shown it the way.

As they made their way back to their car, a man walked up to them.

"I'm wondering if you could help me." He said with a British accent.

"Sure." Mac replied.

The man focussed on their eyes as he spoke. "You will tell me everything you know about Jenna Sommers." He commanded them.

"Sorry mate, I don't know her." Mac told him.

Evan noticed how the man's pupils had changed much like Jenna's had when she compelled the gunman earlier. Glad that he was wearing vervain, he corroborated Mac's story. Whoever this man was, he was a vampire. That almost certainly meant bad news for his girlfriend if he was asking about her.

"Are you sure? She's a pretty little thing. Has a bad habit of not dying, just like her niece."

"We're sure. Now could you leave please, we should be going." Evan said.

"Of course, don't let me keep you. You will not remember any of this conversation." He told them.

Mac was about to say something when Evan nudged him just as the British man turned his back. Mac looked up at him and saw Evan shaking his head so he decided to stay quiet until they reached their car.

"What was that all about?" He asked.

"I don't know but I think he was a vampire. His eyes were doing the same thing that Dylan's did when she was compelling the man who shot Toby. We're lucky we were wearing this vervain." He gestured to the bracelet around his wrist containing the herb.

"He was looking for her, wasn't he? You called her Jenna earlier."

Evan nodded. "She changed her name when she moved here." He explained.

"Do you know who that guy was?"

"No but she told me some guy named Klaus is after her. If he found out that she was alive..." Evan trailed off. "We'll have to ask her about it when we get back to the office."

Mac agreed and they drove back in silence, both of them trying to comprehend the eventful day that they'd had.

When they reached the office they told Jenna immediately about the vampire that they had seen.

"What was he like?" She asked them.

"Really creepy, tried to compel us, British..." Mac listed.

"Wait, did you say British?" They nodded. "It's Klaus. He knows I'm here."


	8. Chapter 8

**I'm so sorry for the delay in updating this story. I've been so busy recently. I hope you like this chapter :)**

"_It's Klaus. He knows I'm here."_

"We don't know that for sure." Evan tried to reassure her.

"It has to be him. What are the chances of some other creepy British vampire looking for me?"

"Let's not freak out quite yet." Mac said.

"You don't know what he's like. He'll hurt you, all of you, to get to me if he has to."

"He won't do that. He doesn't even know that we know you. We were wearing vervain."

"I'm not." Toby panicked. "What if he comes after me?"

"You told me that vampires can't compel other vampires." Evan said.

"He's an original. He's one of the only vampires who can."

"How will we stop him? I can't wear vervain or it will burn me."

Jenna thought about this for a second. "When I was back in Mystic Falls, Katherine had built up a tolerance to vervain. She was able to take it and resist compulsion." She suggested. "But it won't be easy and will probably hurt like hell. I can't ask you to do that for me."

"Wait a minute..." Evan started. "He doesn't know that you changed your name. As long as Toby only knows you as Dylan Weir, maybe she won't have to answer when he asks about you."

"It's a possibility. Damon was telling us about how he found the loophole when he compelled Katherine. This could be it."

"Wait, so you changed your name when you moved here?" Toby asked.

"Yeah, but I won't tell you the name that Klaus knows. That way he won't be able to compel you to tell him about me."

"It sounds risky." She commented.

"It will be. I'm really sorry for dragging you all in to this. You shouldn't have to be worried about lying to original vampires to save me from my messy past."

"We want to help you Je... Dylan." Evan corrected himself.

"I'm just saying I'd understand if you would rather I compelled you to forget about me. At least that way you'd be safe."

"No way." Mac said. "We work with dinosaurs for a living, we don't do 'safe'. You know that." He smiled.

"I'm sorry, this is all a bit too much." Jenna admitted. "This man killed me twice, and he's tried to kill my niece as well. I just... I need a minute." She said, before getting up and making her way to Evan's office to be alone.

She couldn't believe how much had changed within the last 48 hours. Her friends knew her secret, Alaric and John were dead, Toby was a vampire and Klaus was back in the picture. Everything was different now and she just needed time to get her head around the whole situation.

Jenna sat in Evan's office and cried. She didn't know how long had passed when Evan appeared by the door.

"I can't deal with this right now, Evan. If you want to yell at me about all this, please do it later." She whispered, her voice tired from crying.

Evan took pity on her and walked over to where she was sat wordlessly, pulling her into a hug.

The pair sat in silence for a while, before Jenna spoke up.

"Did you mean it?" She asked. Evan's questioning look led her to expand on her question. "When you told me you loved me."

Evan was shocked at this question. With everything that was happening he wasn't sure that Jenna had even heard his confession, let alone remembered it in light of the day's events.

"Yes I did."

"You weren't just saying it because of what happened to Toby?"

"In a way I guess I was." He admitted. "I was scared that I wouldn't have a chance to tell you how I feel. I've actually felt this way about you for a while. I'm just sorry you had to find out like that."

Jenna turned to face him, her eyes filled with unshed tears.

"Don't be sorry." She whispered before pausing, unsure if she had the nerve to continue. "I.." She trailed off.

"Don't." Evan warned. "You don't have to say it back yet." He reassured her.

"It's not that. I'm just… I'm still too scared that I'm going to lose you. Klaus has taken everyone I love from me once before. I'm not sure I could cope if he did it again."

"You mean you'd turn off your emotions?" He asked. Jenna looked away and nodded, ashamed that she was even admitting it. "Why would you even think about doing that?" Evan raised his voice slightly.

"Grief is almost impossible to deal with as a human. Imagine feeling that about everyone you've ever cared about and magnifying it tenfold. Can you honestly tell me you wouldn't be tempted to turn it off just so you wouldn't have to feel that pain every minute of every day?" She responded loudly, trying to control her tears. "Add on to that the fact that the people I love back home are still alive and think that I'm dead and the guilt that I feel because of that and the intense hatred I feel for Klaus and his brother, and for the man that shot Toby earlier. Is it any mystery why I'm struggling to cope?"

"I'm sorry Jenna. I'll admit I have no idea how hard this must be for you." Evan said. "But you have to focus on the things in your life worth feeling. Think about us, think about your family back home. We can help you through all this, just like you will with Toby. I know we don't know exactly what it feels like but we still care and we are trying to understand."

"I know you are. I'm sorry for lashing out."

"It's ok." Evan replied, resting a gentle hand on her leg.

"Evan, you need to call me Dylan all the time now. Toby's hearing is heightened and we can't risk her hearing you say…" She trailed off, knowing that she didn't need to finish the sentence. Evan nodded in understanding.

"This is all so strange." He admitted. "A few days ago I thought that dinosaurs were as crazy as my life would get and now two of my best friends are vampires. I just wish there was something I could've done to stop all this from happening."

"So do I." Jenna replied. "None of this would've happened if I hadn't fed Toby my blood."

"You weren't to know what would happen."

"But I knew the risks. I knew what could happen and I still did it. But her injuries were so bad Evan, I couldn't… I couldn't sit by and do nothing." She cried, her body starting to shake with silent sobs in his arms.

"If you hadn't done it she'd be dead." Evan told her. "I mean…" He started to continue, wondering how to put the situation delicately.

"I know." Jenna whispered through her tears. "What are we going to do now?" She asked.

"We're going to help Toby and you are going to stay away from Klaus."

"I don't want to have to hide for the rest of my life." She said. "Katherine has been running from him for five hundred years and he hasn't given up."

"Don't think like that." Evan warned her, knowing that her mind was wondering how long she'd be on the run for. "Which one's Katherine?" He asked. Jenna had tried to explain everything she could about vampires, including those in Mystic Falls, the night before after Toby and Mac had left the office to go home.

"She's Elena's doppelganger." Jenna clarified. "She became a vampire to stop Klaus from killing her in the ritual. Since Klaus… since he staked me she's the only person from home I've seen." She said sadly.

"Maybe now that Klaus knows you're alive you could go back and see them?" Evan suggested. "The only reason you couldn't was because he thought you were dead."

"We don't know for sure that he knows I'm alive." Jenna argued.

"He'd here in Vancouver anyway." He reasoned.

"You really think I could do it?" She asked, allowing the hope of seeing her friends and family again seem through into the excitement in her voice.

"I think you should ask that Damien guy first." He warned her.

"Damon." Jenna corrected automatically. "I can't leave now though." She realized. "Not with what's happened to Toby."

"Unless we come with you." He suggested.

"You would do that?" She asked.

"I want to." Evan smiled, Jenna's hopes and heart lifting once again. "We can go and ask Toby now."

"And Mac." Jenna added. "He's not going to leave Toby."

"You've got a point." Evan replied.

Without another word, the pair left Evan's office to find their colleagues. Jenna hoped more than anything that they would agree to go. Being able to see her family again would mean everything to her.

**A/N: Ooo we're going to Mystic Falls! Is there anyone specifically you want to see? I'd love to know what you think as always :) xxxxxx**


	9. Chapter 9

**Sorry about the wait for this chapter, I've been pretty busy lately. I hope you like it :)**

A week later, Jenna, Evan, Toby and Mac were in a cab from the airport on the way to Mystic Falls. Evan reluctantly agreed to let Project Magnet oversee the anomalies while they were away, his need to protect people from the creatures proving stronger than his hatred for the organisation. Toby and Mac had been on board with the idea to travel to Jenna's home as soon as she had mentioned it, but Damon had needed a little more persuading. Eventually he caved, secretly hoping that the return of her aunt would help Elena. He hadn't told Jenna what was going on in Mystic Falls because, if he was perfectly honest, it was way too complicated to explain over the phone. The only other person who knew that they were coming was Stefan and the Salvatore brothers had agreed that they would stay in the boarding house since Jenna's old house had been burnt down by Elena. He'd also agreed to wait and give Toby her daylight ring once she arrived, meaning that they had to travel at night.

By the time they arrived in the small town it was nearing 5am and Jenna knew that the sun would be rising soon so they needed to make sure Toby was inside, at least until they could ask Bonnie to spell the ring.

Jenna directed the cab driver to the Salvatore boarding house, watching as her friend's eyes widened at the sight of the large, old building.

"This is it." She said as they pulled up on the driveway. She thanked the driver and paid the fare before getting out and knocking on the front door.

With a creak, the door opened to reveal a young-looking man with light brown hair. He smiled when he saw Jenna.

"Stefan!" She greeted him. "Hi, how are you?"

"I'm ok, all things considering." He replied, moving out the way so that she could walk inside. Evan and Mac followed suit but Toby stood outside, hesitating. "You can come in." Stefan smiled at her, guessing that she was the vampire Jenna had turned. "This house isn't owned by anyone living so you don't need to be invited in." He explained.

"Thanks." She replied, suddenly shy around Jenna's friend.

"Stefan, this is Toby, Mac, and my boyfriend Evan." Jenna introduced, gesturing to them each in turn.

"It's lovely to meet you." Stefan replied politely. "Would you like a tour of the place?"

"That would be great." Evan smiled.

"While you're doing that I'll go fetch the bags." Jenna said.

"Are you sure you don't need a hand?" Evan asked. Jenna raised an eyebrow at him as if to remind him that she was perfectly capable to do it alone with her vampire strength.

After half an hour of showing Evan, Mac and Toby the house and everyone unpacking their things in their rooms, everyone gathered downstairs where they were introduced to Damon, Bonnie and Caroline. After getting over her shock of seeing Jenna alive, Caroline brought in a bottle of wine for Jenna's friends and Bonnie before passing around glasses of blood from blood bags in the basement fridge to Jenna, Toby and the Salvatores and taking one for herself. Bonnie made Toby a daylight ring, much to her relief as she was sick of being stuck inside all day.

"Where are Elena and Jeremy?" Jenna asked.

Stefan and Damon exchanged a look, before looking pointedly at Caroline as if to ask her to break the news.

"Jeremy's dead, Jenna, I'm so sorry." The blonde vampire said sadly. "Katherine killed him."

Jenna felt her blood begin to boil with anger at the doppelgänger vampire who had caused her and her friends so much pain. It took her a couple of seconds to process the news before the broke down in tears. Evan crossed the room to her side immediately and wrapped a strong, protective arm around her.

"No! He can't be!" Jenna cried. "You were meant to protect him!" She said to no one in particular. "What happened?"

"It's a long story." Stefan started. He told her what had happened since she left, explaining about how Alaric was turned into a vampire by Esther to kill her children and how Elena had to die in order for him to. He explained how she became a vampire and the events surrounding their search for the cure.

Throughout this Evan, Toby and Mac stayed silent. They'd barely had over a week to process all of this and we're awestruck by how everyone else seemed so at ease with the idea of vampires, witches and werewolves roaming the town. They each listened intently to the stories though, fascinated by what they were talking about.

Evan wondered if Jenna had mentioned anything about dinosaurs to them and, if not, how would they take the news? Would they be in as much shock as he was now or would they take it in their stride like everything else they seemed to have faced?

"So where is Elena now?" Jenna asked once he had finished.

"Locked in the basement." Damon replied. "Without her humanity she's ruthless. We're keeping her there until we can figure out how to make her turn it back on.

"Maybe I could help." She suggested. She didn't know much about how these things worked, having never experienced it herself before, but she thought that maybe finding out that her aunt was alive would make Elena feel something.

"It's worth a try." Stefan said, trying not to let the hopefulness be heard in his voice.

"Happiness and love are both strong emotions. Although we can't evoke those feelings in her any more, maybe you can."

He led Jenna down to the basement with strict instructions to keep her distance from Elena since she tried to kill Bonnie. Jenna nodded, trying not to let the pain of what her niece was going through and what she had become influence her actions when she saw her. At least for now, this was not the same Elena that she once knew. She had to remember that.

Opening the door, Jenna had to bite back a sob at the pathetic state that the young girl was in. She had been deprived of blood and kept weak by vervain. If she hadn't turned her humanity off, she'd probably be feeling deeply sorry for herself. She was slouched in the corner of the room and didn't even care to lift her head to see who had come in, knowing that it would probably be one of the Salvatore brothers trying to 'help' her.

On the walk down, it had been agreed that Jenna would go inside alone and Stefan would wait outside and listen in to what was happening.

"Elena?" She asked tentatively, moving slowly closer to her.

Elena raised her head in a tired movement until she was looking Jenna in the eye. Jenna was sure she saw a flash of something in her eyes but it was gone almost before it had even appeared.

"Silas." She said, weakly but with as much conviction as she could muster.

"Elena, it's me, Jenna. I'm alive."

"You're dead. I saw you die in the quarry. You can't be here." She reasoned.

"If I really was Silas, why would I appear as your dead aunt trying to get your humanity back. He doesn't want you to want the cure. He's probably happy you're like this." Jenna explained, hoping that Elena would listen to reason since she couldn't listen to her emotions.

"Jenna?" She asked, tears starting to form in her eyes.

"Yes." Jenna smiled, hoping that this meant something inside of her was changing.

"It's really you?"

Jenna nodded, trying hard herself to hold back tears.

Slowly, Elena tried to move forward towards Jenna, reaching out a hand to touch her as if to make sure that she was real. Jenna could tell that she was struggling though, her body was incredibly weak and tired, so she covered the rest of the distance between them herself, pulling Elena into a tight hug.

The moment they touched Elena broke down in tears of joy and this was all it took to start Jenna crying again as well.

Stefan, having heard the whole exchange from outside, opened the door and walked inside. Jenna looked up and him and smiled through her tears and Elena followed her gaze to meet Stefan's eyes.

All of a sudden the emotions hit her. Everything that she repressed since Jeremy's death came flooding back in an instant. Clinging to her aunt for support, Elena became hysterical, crying about everything that had happened over the past few months and all of the terrible things she'd done with her emotions off.

Jenna wasn't really sure what to do, having never seen this happen before, and looked to Stefan for help.

"Listen." He started, looking her in the eyes as Jenna held her tightly. "Listen. I know this stage, ok? The emotions are overwhelming you. You just need to focus on one thing."

"I can't! I can't!" Elena cried.

"Just find that one thing inside of you that makes you strong and channel everything you're feeling into that one emotion." Stefan instructed her.

"I don't know... I just can't!" She screamed.

Jenna turned her niece's frail body to face her. "Elena, focus on love, focus on compassion. That's your strength, it always has been since you were a little kid." She encouraged. "Remember your love for your friends, for Stefan..." She listed before reluctantly adding, "for Damon, for me." Jenna finished.

Elena nodded slowly, her tears gradually subsiding as she fought to feel love once more. She knew love could hurt but she was turning on her humanity again because of her love for Jenna and the relief and pure joy she'd felt from finding out that she was alive.

Stefan left them to get some blood for Elena, not wanting to see her in pain from starving any longer than necessary.

"Thanks." She whispered as he handed her the blood bag, her voice hoarse from crying. She drank from it greedily, relishing in the taste and the feeling of her strength coming back.

"Bonnie and Caroline are upstairs with Damon if you want to see them." Stefan told her.

"When you feel up to it I think you owe them an apology.

Elena nodded, ashamed of what she'd done and said to them without her humanity.

"I should go back up and see my friends. I don't think leaving them with Damon for so long is the best idea." Jenna said. "Are you going to come up or wait down here?" She asked.

"I'd like a word with Elena before we came back upstairs." Stefan said. Jenna nodded and left them alone.

She had barely stepped inside the living room when she was taken aback by a hug from Caroline. She smiled through the mess of blonde hair covering her face, knowing that at least her and Damon must've been listening in on what happened.

When Caroline finally released her from her strong arms after thanking her what seemed like a hundred times, Jenna moved back to the couch to sit next to Evan.

"I take it the plan worked?" He asked her.

"Elena's got her humanity back." Jenna clarified.

"She's no longer a waitress-murdering emotionless bitch." Damon said.

"Tactful as ever." Jenna commented, too relieved to even be annoyed.

"I bet you guys are exhausted." Bonnie said to Jenna and her friends. "Why don't you go to sleep for a few hours and we'll see you later?" She suggested.

Everyone nodded in agreement before saying their goodbyes and making their way to their rooms.

Once everyone had gone, Bonnie made her excuses to Damon and Caroline and left as well, knowing that she had a long drive ahead of her to meet Katherine somewhere where they wouldn't be recognised to offer her a deal in exchange for Silas' tombstone.

**A/N: What do you think? I'd love to read any comments you have :) reviews make post faster ;) xxxxxx**


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